Is God the Author of Sin?

Is God the author of sin? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Anthony calling in from Texas. Anthony, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? I had to lead with love or make a stand against this. She's 25 years old, so I know she's at the age of accountability. And I've told her how I felt repeatedly, given her scriptures, and I just need a little bit more wisdom than I can come up with. Anthony, you are in a very difficult situation because you want to, as you said, you want to show your daughter that you love her. At the same time in our culture today, the definition that so many people have of love is loving me means accepting and affirming everything that I do.

In fact, even going further than that, celebrating it. And so we can be made to feel as Christians like we're not really loving an individual if we're not fully on board with the decisions that they make. And it sounds to me like you've been clear with her about the fact that you disagree with this decision, or just with this lifestyle, right? Maybe she doesn't feel like it's a decision.

Maybe she feels like this is just who I am. But with regard to the wedding, I mean, here you have a ceremony. And the Bible speaks, obviously, we know from from the very beginning about marriage is something that takes place before God, between a man and a woman.

And the people who are there are going to be going as witnesses to support this union. And this is where I think you have to, as a father, I mean, my general inclination when people ask me about marriage is to say, This question is no, we don't want to participate in the wedding ceremony to go as witnesses and to say, Yeah, we're, we're okay, we approve of this. Is there a way to continue to show support and love and to keep the door open, while also saying, I'm, I'm not okay, I'm not okay with this.

And that's where things are difficult. That's where it's going to require, it's an require wisdom, prayer. And it sounds to me like you have been pleading with her, like you've been clear about, you know, how, how this sin grieves you, but that you still love her. And so I just want to take a moment to pray for you. And to invite all of our listeners as well, to pray for you that the Lord would give you wisdom in each and every one of your conversations with your daughter, and, and also that the Lord would be at work in her life, in her heart, that she would have an experience like the, the, the process of her life.

The prodigal son coming, coming to her senses and seeing your love for her as a father, and ultimately the love that God extends to us in Jesus and, and the fact that God calls us home to him. And so let's pray for our brother, Anthony, and for this situation. Father, we lift Anthony up to you and we ask Lord, would you give him wisdom? Would you fill him with your Holy Spirit?

And Lord, we know that the fruit of your spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. I pray that he would exhibit all of those things to his daughter, even as he grieves, Lord, this, this lifestyle that she's chosen. And as he's communicated with her about it, I pray that somehow, Lord, you would help him to be bold and courageous and honest about your word while also exhibiting just a great love for and pursuit of her.

And so would you help him? Would you give him wisdom and would you be with her Lord Jesus? Would you draw her to yourself and would you help her Lord to, to see her need of you, to confess sin before you, to receive your grace and your mercy? Lord, even as Paul said in first Corinthians chapter six, as he wrote to the Corinthians about the fact that some of them had lived in these homosexual relationships.

And he says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were cleansed, you were sanctified. Lord, may she experienced that washing, that cleansing, that sanctification by the power of your Holy Spirit. And again, Lord, we pray for wisdom for her father, for Anthony in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Anthony, thank you so much for your call. We'll continue to pray for you in this whole situation. Just to follow up for you, Adriel, I wonder if you could just briefly talk about the difference between tolerance, the Christian definition of tolerance, historical definition of tolerance, and what might be called, you know, affirmation or celebration, because we see that with the LGBTQ community. And it's a very different thing. And that's, that's why it's such a hard road for believers these days.

Yeah. Well, I mean, not long ago, I preached through the book of Revelation. And as believers, there's, there's actually a sense in which, and you see this in the first two chapters, when, when John is getting these visions and Jesus is speaking to the, the churches in Asia Minor, there's a sense in which he calls some of those churches to intolerance with regard to idolatry and sin. And so we love people, all people made in the image of God, but we don't entertain sin and evil and rebellion against God.

We don't celebrate it. And so that's, that's where the tension comes in. And, and so we have to, as Christians, never tolerate sin. And what I mean by that is, is never accept it for ourselves.

Never just say, okay, you know, it's fine, not a big deal. No, that's compromise. And that will lead us astray as followers of Jesus. And yet we need to have a behemoth love for all people, a willingness to lay down our lives for our neighbors. Even those, I mean, who's our neighbor, it's even the people who disagree with us. Even, even those who persecute us, Jesus says, love your enemies. And so we should be firm against sin, but also devoted to sacrificial love for and toward the people around us. And, and so that doesn't look like avoiding people and it doesn't look like Anthony avoiding his daughter or ignoring her.

And it also doesn't look like embracing and condoning everything that others do. And that's, that's a challenge. It was a challenge in the first century. It's a challenge today. And that's why we need courage to stand firm on the truth of God's word, not to compromise as Christians and wisdom and charity love to, to know how to, how to, how to walk the fine line, how to, how to do this in a way that's honoring to the Lord.

And, and so, yeah, we, we need a lot of, we need a lot of help here. We need the help of the Holy Spirit, ultimately, and the guidance of God's word, because there are a lot of traps, ditches to fall into, and we don't want to fall into any of them. And, and in this conversation, it's the, the, you know, on one, on one side, you have compromise and just embracing sin or tolerating sin, being okay with it and, and not being willing to call it out. And on the other side, you have an inability to engage with our neighbors because we're just, we just ignore everyone around us because we don't want to, we don't want to engage with the world.

And so both of those are problems that we need to be careful to avoid. Good word. Thanks for that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We sure love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, maybe something going on in your own Christian life or your church that you're concerned about, you could use some advice. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Call us right now.

Our phone lines will be open for another 15 minutes or so. Let's go to James calling in from Minnesota. James, what's your question for Adriel? Oh, Pastor Adriel? Hey, James, you there? Yeah.

Yeah. So, um, I've been married for 23 years and, uh, I'm just curious about James 5 16 where it says, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another. I'm just curious, like, we've never talked about it, but like, I confessed to my wife, I was looking at pornography like two months ago for three seconds, you know, and I'm just curious, how deep do we go in confessing our sins to one another?

Like, what's the application of that? James, this is an excellent question and a really practical one. And we are called to confess our sins to the Lord, right?

But I think to each other as well, right there in James, I mean, that's what James is getting at in James chapter 5 verse 16, especially when we sin against someone. And I think this is an area where in marriage there can be transparency. You asked, you know, how far do I need to go into detail?

What exactly I looked at? How long, you know, those kinds of things. And here's where I would say that may not be the most helpful thing. I think sometimes we get this question with regard to couples that are, you know, they're engaged to be married and they're wondering, okay, you know, how much detail do I go into about, you know, my own past, the struggles that I've had with sexual sin or other partners that I've had. And I think it's important for us to be transparent with each other, to be honest with each other in this situation. I want to commend you for being honest and confessing your sin. I think it's important also, let me just add this for those listening in, thinking about this struggle in particular, and it's like, you know, my spouse is kind of my accountability partner.

I think it's really helpful to have people, you know, in the church, elders, pastor, who can also hold you accountable here so that it's not just all on your spouse in particular, but so that they know that there's a group of support outside of you and that that's not a burden that they have to carry all by themselves. I think that's really important too, James. But just in terms of wisdom, I would say it is good and right for us to confess our sins.

I think there's healing there. That's exactly what James says. I think it's not always wise to go into every single detail. I think that we can honestly confess our sins and say, okay, you know, this is what happened without needing to say this is exactly what I was looking at and so forth.

And I think that that could be unhelpful because that could create this is not helpful. And so, Bill, I want to go to you just thinking, you know, as someone who's done marriage and family therapy and care, what would you say to James? I think your advice is really well taken.

You don't have a need to go into deep, dark detail that can actually be more hurtful to the spouse or the other person in the relationship. But I do think you want to be honest and say, look, I blew it. I messed up.

I did this. It was sinful. I need to repent of it. So it really is kind of a fine line. We've talked about this before.

It requires wisdom. And that's where God's word, the Holy Spirit, can really illuminate the way we should go about these confessions with other people. And I think, James, you can ask yourself the question, am I trying to conceal something from my spouse?

Is there something else that I'm trying to hide specifically? A lot of times when people get caught in sin, it's just sort of like they're willing to confess a little bit, but we're not really totally honest. It's like the tip of the iceberg kind of a thing. And there's a tendency that we all have to minimize our sins because it's sin and there's shame and there's a sense of guilt. Now the good news is, and this is the good news for all of us as Christians, Jesus and his grace are sufficient. The gospel is big enough for our sins. The reason we can confess our sins to each other is because of Jesus, because of the gospel, because there is a place to go with our sins. People outside of the church, they have to hide and conceal and pretend like they're better than they are.

I mean, we see this everywhere. We don't have to be that way. As followers of Jesus, we can be real, honest.

Why? Because there's a place where we can take our sins and we can receive and experience real forgiveness and mercy. We ought to give that to each other. When someone confesses to us, we ought to extend that mercy and grace. I think before the Lord, you want to have a clear conscience. I'm not trying to hide anything from this person. I don't want to hurt them more. It's not healthy or helpful to go into every single detail, but I do want to be able to say to this person, to my spouse, I've sinned in this way and just want you to pray for me, ask for your forgiveness. I'm looking for accountability, and I think, again, that accountability is really important to get a broader base. Your spouse shouldn't be the one who's carrying that on her shoulders all by herself. Maybe you have that already, but just an encouragement for you. James, I appreciate your transparency.

What a practical question, an important question. And may the Lord grant you grace, strength, victory by the power of the Holy Spirit and a sense of His love, and bless you and your marriage as well. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

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I love you and Bill Meyer. Someone told me that since God created everything, that he also created sin. And I thought, that's not true, because there's a scripture that says, he who knew no sin became sin so that we may become the righteousness of God, so that just doesn't make sense. So just take it from there, please.

Thank you. Viola, you have the gift of discernment, sister, because you're right, that's not true. And I mean, people have tried to make this argument before, well, if God is all sovereign, if he made all things, well, then he's the author of sin, but the church has uniformly rejected that idea. God is not the author of sin.

Isn't it something foreign that came into the world? God did give us freedom of choice, Adam and Eve. They're in the garden and left to the freedom of their own wills. They sinned, they fell away from the Lord. And as a result of their sin, their disobedience, I mean, sin entered the world. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter five. And so we have sin, we have original sin, which is the fact that everyone inherits the guilt of Adam's sin from the moment they're born. The guilt of Adam's sin, that want of original righteousness, the corruption really of our whole nature, so that we're inclined toward sin. We see this in our own lives, even as believers, those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we still experience that struggle between the flesh and the Spirit. And there are sins that we commit that come out of that struggle that we experience, but it's not that God is the one who is to blame for those sins or for Adam's sin.

James, I think, puts it really well, Viola. He says in James chapter one, verse 13, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. And so sin comes from us, not from God. Now God sent his Son into the world to do away with our sins. And so the rescue from sin comes from God.

But in terms of who's guilty, who's the author of sin? It's me. It's you.

It's us. It's those desires that we have that lure us away, and when those desires become full grown, we embrace them and indulge them. That gives birth to sin, and that's why we need God's grace. God bless. Amen.

Really good word. Thanks for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Gloria calling in from St. Louis. Gloria, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I'm confused about the speaking in tongues. I hear a lot of ministers that I listen to sometimes on YouTube, and sometimes they'll preach and then they'll start speaking in tongues. And then there are other ministers that I admire that are well known that teach and never speak in tongues. Is this something that I should be curious about, or is this speaking in tongues was just only for the during the time of, I believe it was the Pentecost?

Gloria, great question. And of course, depending on who you ask, what pastor you ask, you're going to get a different answer. Now, this is not one of those issues that I think determines whether or not someone is truly a Christian or not.

The debate is known as the debate between cessationists and continuationists. That is, those who believe that the sign gifts, miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, ceased in the first century, together with the time of the apostles. Or those gifts, like tongues and prophecy, continue into the church until Jesus comes back. And so we have to look at the Bible, ultimately, to come to our conclusions on that question. It's my view that there was a close relationship between those sign gifts and God's revelation. And because revelation has been fully and finally accomplished in the person and work of Jesus, we don't have these new sign gifts being given. That doesn't mean that God can't do miracles today and that he doesn't do miracles today.

I believe that he does. But ordinarily speaking, my view is that this is not something that we should expect in the life of the church ordinarily. Now, if your question is, you know, is this something that I should be doing or that all Christians should be doing? I think the answer is pretty clear from Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. He says in verses 27 and following that not every Christian possesses the same gift, including the gift of tongues, which means that even if the gift of tongues was a gift that God was still giving today, we wouldn't expect that every single believer had it because God distributes the gifts of the Holy Spirit individually as he wills. And it's the diversity of gifts that helps the body to be built up in love. If everybody had the same gift or if it was the expectation that we'd all have the same gift, it'd be like a body where everybody was a hand. That would just be a hand. It wouldn't be a complete body.

It would be a very unhealthy body. And so that's one thing because there are some who say, well, if you are a Christian, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to speak in tongues and you will speak in tongues. No, that's ruled out by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And then you also have just the instructions that he gives in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14 on what the gift of tongues looked like, at least there in the early church. And it wasn't something where you had a pastor getting up and preaching in the language that everybody knew and then all of a sudden speaking in tongues and then going back to his sermon.

That's out of order. Paul says if somebody is speaking in tongues, actually, it's the gift of the Holy Spirit, they should pray for an interpreter also, because if you speak in a tongue and nobody else understands you, how are they going to say amen to what you're saying? Might as well not speak in tongues at all in the church, Paul says.

In fact, Paul says, I'd rather speak everything in a known language or a few words in a known language than thousands of words in an unknown language because it's not going to edify anyone. And so you do see a lot of confusion on this issue in particular, and I would just encourage you to keep digging into the scriptures. I would say maybe spend some time in those chapters, 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14, where Paul gives instruction with regard to these things.

God bless. And Adriel, there are some churches today who would claim that if you're not speaking in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit. You haven't been infilled with the Holy Spirit.

How would you respond to that? They base that off of a number of texts in the book of Acts where individuals were filled and they began to speak with tongues or prophesy, and so they see those signs as the confirmation that you are indeed filled with the Holy Spirit. There's a real problem with this because once you say that, you begin to call into question whether or not people actually have, Christians actually have the Holy Spirit.

And Paul said, no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. In other words, you have the Holy Spirit now. That's that down payment that assures the future hope of glory that you have.

You've been sealed. We are called to be filled every single day, and how does that happen? Well, it's as the word of Christ dwells in us richly. And what is the ultimate fruit of the Holy Spirit? It's not that you're going to be working miracles. It's love, joy, peace, patience, and so forth, as Paul describes in the book of Galatians.

Those are the signs, really, of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.